Both Men’s, Women’s Team Races Intriguing After Day One at NCAA Division III Championships

Photo Courtesy: Denison Athletics

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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, March 19. NOTHING has been close to decided after day one of the NCAA Division III Championships at the IU Natatorium at IUPUI other than a clear delineation of which teams are title contenders, and which are not.

The Denison men are looking to recapture their title after losing it to Kenyon last year. Kenyon had won 31 straight titles from 1980-2010 before Denison won in 2011 and 2012. Kenyon turned the tables last year.

Denison finished the night with 173 points, while Kenyon stands second with 104 points. Emory (73), Chicago (59) and MIT (47) rounded out the top five. Keene State (45), St. Olaf (40), CMS (39), Williams (34) and Johns Hopkins (34) hold the rest of the top 10 spots.

Meanwhile, the Emory women is looking to win their fifth consecutive team title after collecting 127 points after day one. Johns Hopkins, meanwhile, surprised with 100 points due largely to their incredible depth in the sprint events with a strong 50 free and 200 medley relay.

Denison (99) and Kenyon (97), the other two team title contenders, finished night one in third and fourth, while Amherst tied Williams for fifth with matching 49s. Middlebury (26), Luther (24), Washington U (23) and Gustavus Adolphus (21) comprised the rest of the top 10.

Denison’s senior Allen Weik opened up the night in dominant fashion with a 4:24.31 to win the men’s 500-yard freestyle. That’s his third time winning the event, a streak that included the NCAA D3 record of 4:21.79 from 2012. Securing the top spot also proved to be important in the team battle as Denison needs Weik firing on all cylinders as well as an overwhelming diving performance to claim the team title ahead of Kenyon.

Keene State’s Drew Ledwith posted a second-place effort of 4:26.94, while Kenyon’s Arthur Conover clinched third overall in 4:27.40 as part of a huge Kenyon effort in the finale. Kenyon’s Andrew Chevalier (4:30.09) and Jose Guilfoyle (4:30.36) also went sixth and seventh to maximize team points for the Lords with 41 points overall.

Williams’ Sarah Thompson blistered the field in the women’s 500-yard freestyle with a winning time of 4:48.19. She averaged 29 lows the entire swim before coming home in 28.75 to win by more than three seconds.

Kenyon’s Mariah Williamson took second in 4:51.48, just edging Emory’s Courtney McDermott (4:51.53) for what could be an all-important team point as Kenyon, Emory and Denison do battle for the team title. Denison’s Campbell Costley checked in with a fourth-place time of 4:51.96 in what proved to be a close contest for the second-fourth spots.

Redlands’ Jeffrey Depew defended his men’s 200-yard IM title from last year in a close competition with Mary Washington’s Hugh Anderson. Depew clinched the title, 1:47.44 to 1:47.75, after turning nearly identical with Anderson at the 150-yard mark.

Denison had a monster event with four up and one down as Carlos Maciel (1:48.92), Spencer Fronk (1:49.96), Jack Humphrey (1:50.00) and Bart Brunk (1:51.24) finished third, sixth, seventh and eighth in the finale, while Jack Lindell finished 15th in 1:50.71.

USMMA’s Kevin Lindgren (1:49.43) and Emory’s Andrew Wilson (1:49.66) also competed in the championship finale. Denison had a huge event in terms of scoring, taking an 81-50 lead ahead of Kenyon, which only had Ian Reardon score with a ninth-place 1:49.32.

Amherst’s Emily Hyde cruised her way to a one-second victory in the women’s 200-yard IM with a 2:01.53, fending off a pair of Emory swimmers who are battling for ever-important team title points. Annelise Kowalsky took second overall on 2:02.78 with Emory teammate Sadie Nennig clinching third in 2:03.33.

After the 200 IM, Emory pushed its lead with 86 points as Denison stood second with 53 points. Kenyon, the other team title contender, stood third with 38 points.

In the always-popular men’s 50-yard free, Coast Guard’s Chris Brindamour matched his preliminary time of 20.06 to win the NCAA title, while morning top-seed Austin Fathman of MIT couldn’t replicate his 20.04 from prelims as he wound up seventh in 20.63.

Emory’s Ross Spock hit the wall second in the sprint freestyle with a 20.15, while Gettysburg’s Jason Potter finished third overall in 20.32.

Denison’s Ryan Fleming (20.35, 4th) and Conrad Wuorinen (20.59, 12th) helped their squad become the first team to clear 100 team points with a leading tally of 101.

Trinity’s Stephen Culberson (20.37), Kenyon’s Joseph Duronio (20.48) and Johns Hopkins’ Anthony Lordi (20.64) finished fifth, sixth and eighth overall in the splash-and dash. Duronio helped Kenyon stand second with 72 points against Denison’s 101, as the two teams already began powering away from the rest of the field.

Notably, Whitter’s Filip Dajkovich was disqualified in the consolation heat after falling into the water prior to the start. Twitter blew up in response believing he should have had another shot at swimming.

Johns Hopkins put together an epic outing in the women’s 50-yard freestyle with three of the championship eight finalists. Anastasia Bogdanovski threw down a 22.80, the only sub-23 of the day in the event, to capture the title. She just missed Elizabeth Carlton’s 2009 D3 meet record of 22.71.

Heading into the diving break, Emory held the lead in the women’s race with 95 points, while Denison (69) and Kenyon (63) were in a battle for second. Johns Hopkins also entered the fray with 60 points for fourth.

Denison then dropped a big-time hammer on Kenyon in the men’s three-meter diving finale. Connor Dignan won with an NCAA meet record tally of 613.90 points. That beat USMMA’s Nicholas Halbach, who totaled 591.65 in 2011. Dignan, however, set the D3 overall record with 645.70 points at his conference championships.

Heading into the 200 medley relays, Denison held the men’s team title lead with 155 points against Kenyon’s 72.

Denison then made the best of a potentially bad situation in the men’s 200-yard medley relay by winning the consolation heat with a 1:29.63 as Spencer Fronk, Damon Rosenburg, Andrew Rich and Conrad Wuorinen maximized the available team points. Wuorinen even threw in a sizzling 19.97 anchor.

St. Olaf (1:29.98), Chicago (1:30.06), CMS (1:30.10), Williams (1:30.28) and TCNJ (1:30.81) comprised the rest of the championship heat in the relay.

Although most of the attention has been on Emory, Kenyon and Denison, Johns Hopkins’ made some serious noise after the 50 free and relays as Taylor Kitayam (25.00), Pilar Shimizu (28.85), Kylie Ternes (24.89) and Sarah Rinsma (23.20) won the 200-yard medley relay with a 1:41.94 to help JHU end the night in second.

Author: Jason Marsteller

Jason Marsteller is the general manager of digital properties at Swimming World. He joined Swimming World in June 2006 as the managing editor after previous stints as a media relations professional at Indiana University, the University of Tennessee, Southern Utah University and the Utah Summer Games.